


Extraction

by Anonymous



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-30
Updated: 2012-11-30
Packaged: 2017-11-19 22:13:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/578207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a <a href="http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/12672.html?thread=28577408">prompt on avengerkink</a> involving <a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8x15b0yhC1r1ev9bo1_500.jpg">this art</a> (possibly not worksafe). Tony is blindfolded and held down while hands remove his RT unit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Extraction

**Author's Note:**

> No character death. At all. As promised.

Tony's chest is heaving. He's hyperventilating. So hard, they're not sure they can safely remove the RT. But at least he's not struggling any more, mainly because of the straps tight around his arms and legs and hips.  
  
He pants and mutters and his head thrashes from side to side. After he puked the first time they decided against immobilizing his head, so he could at least turn it to vomit into a basin.  
  
The blindfold helps, strangely. Panic still comes in nauseous waves, but he seems better able to ride it out. There's nothing left in his stomach, anyway.  
  
"Are you sure this will work?"  
  
"Of course not. But what are our choices?"  
  
"If we don't do it, he dies for sure. If we do it, he still might die. The only fucking genius on arc reactor tech is lying right here, so it's not like we can ask him."  
  
"We don't have time to argue about it. I'll take full responsibility for whatever happens. Just - do it. That's an order."  
  
A pause.  
  
"All right. Here we go. Are the cameras on?"  
  
"What the hell do you want cameras for?"  
  
"So if it works, I can see what we did right. And if it doesn't, what we did wrong."  
  
Another pause, while everyone gets into position, one at his side, one at his head, a third watching the monitors.  
  
The RT is easier to unscrew than they thought.  
  
"NO!"  
  
*  
  
Tony can feel his lungs running away with him, sucking in too much air too hard. He can still hear the people talking over him, though. He's afraid of what they're going to do to him. He can't trust them. The only one he can trust is Pepper and he hasn't heard a woman's voice for days.  
  
"If we don't do it, he dies for sure. If we do it, he still might die. The only fucking genius on arc reactor tech is lying right here, so it's not like we can ask him."  
  
Wouldn't tell you anyways, fuckers, he thinks furiously. Big man, suit of armor, take that away and what am I? Frail. Strapped to a table and blindfolded. Cold metal under his spine and ass and oh God what were they going to do to him?  
  
He knows. He'd almost - almost! - rather they raped him and get it over with.  
  
"All right. Here we go. Are the cameras on?"  
  
"What the hell do you want cameras for?"  
  
"So if it works, I can see what we did right. And if it doesn't, what we did wrong."  
  
Even blindfolded he senses bodies closing in. There are hands cradling his head, fingers stroking his scalp in an obscene parody of affection.  
  
Fingertips fumble at the edges of the RT and Tony screams.  
  
"NO!"  
  
*  
  
"Nnnnn...nnnn..."  
  
Tony tries to get the word out but all he can manage is a whimper. He's not hyperventilating now. In fact, it's hard to take a deep breath. He feels the cannula pressed against his nostrils and sucks in the oxygen gratefully, coughing a little. His throat is dry.  
  
"Tony, hey."  
  
Tony opens his eyes in a dimly lit room. A familiar, faint beep of a monitor and the smell of antiseptic and plastic. There's an even more familiar ache in his sternum, the bulk of the RT socket and the RT itself shining dully under a blanket.  
  
He turns his head a little, dizzy, and tries to focus.  
  
"Steve?"  
  
The big man lets out a sigh of relief.  
  
"You know me."  
  
"All too well," Tony says and coughs again. Steve picks up a paper cup and offers him an ice chip, which he opens his mouth for and sucks on. "What the hell happened?"  
  
"You don't remember?"  
  
Tony opts for non-verbal expression and rolls his eyes.  
  
"Okay, okay. From what we could gather, you were kidnapped and sedated and restrained while your enemies experimented on your arc reactor."  
  
They kept taking it out and putting it back in. He remembers now. The last time, he blacked out. Actually, maybe the last few times.  
  
"How many - ?"  
  
"We don't know how many times, or what they did, exactly. Dr. Banner had some guesses. One of 'em paid off."  
  
"Bruce? Where is he?"  
  
A figure stirs in the shadows; Bruce has been lurking, listening. He's good at that.  
  
"They got wind of the palladium problem," he says, coming to stand next to Steve. "Maybe Vanko left some notes, I don't know. The one guy we captured alive told us they knew you'd replaced it with something. I don't think they know about the new element - "  
  
"The one SHIELD hasn't let us publish about yet," Tony grimaces.  
  
" - but they tried to pick apart the RT to figure it out, reverse engineer it. In the process they experimented with putting different elements into the unit to see if they'd work. Some of them had - side effects."  
  
"Like paranoia," says Steve quietly. "Panic attacks, seizures."  
  
Tony recalls the first time he used the new unit.  
  
 _"Coconut...and metal...oh, wow, yeah!"_  
  
"So we had to take it out, one more time, to remove all traces of the other elements and replace them with yours."  
  
"Did they take the - ?" Sudden alarm shoots through him. Bruce shakes his head.  
  
"Nope, we recovered the element when we extracted you."  
  
Tony shudders. He never wants to hear the word _extraction_ again.  
  
He feels fingertips sliding over his hair and his eyes snap up to meet Steve's. Rock of Ages doesn't look away, keeps petting his head in small motions, his eyes asking a question.  
  
Bruce smiles and leaves the room.


End file.
